Salty’s on the Columbia River

Last weekend we were on a hunt for seafood. Marcel’s mom who is currently working in Portland this winter was looking for a good place for dungeness crabs. That is always a tough question for us because there is none in the sense of what people imagine to be a good seafood restaurant. When we visit her in Florida, there are fish restaurants everywhere. My idea of a seafood restaurant is some kind of shack where they serve the catch of the day etc. The closest one we found in Oregon was Tony’s Crab Shack in Bandon. Sure, there are places like Jake’s Famous Crawfish, McGrath’s, SouthPark etc. but to me they feel like restaurants you can find anywhere in the country except that maybe the salmon and dungeness crabs are fresher. In which case, you still have to pay a lot of money. So, our favorite way to enjoy seafood is to cook it at home. I like to get live crabs from Uwajimaya where they have them all year round. They have three sources – Alaska, Oregon, and California depending on the season. We also like the wild Copper River Salmon from Alaska which Costco sells occasionally. Albacore Tuna is readily available in Astoria, OR. Marcel once had tuna fish and chips there and it was excellent!

We went back and forth picking a place but finally decided on Salty’s since it has a nice ambiance and view.

Complimentary House-made Potato Chips.

Lobster Bisque

Calamari, Crab Cakes, and Coconut Shrimp

Fish and Chips

Not shown here, we also had some seafood chowder and dungeness crabs. We had a nice leisurely meal on a Saturday and hope to find more places like it.

If you are looking for the best Fish and Chips in town, head over to the Frying Scotsman food cart.